1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an interconnection of wire harnesses for use in vehicles and, more particularly, to a connector used for interconnecting wire harnesses at the door portion of an automobile and the like.
2. Description of the Related Art
FIGS. 8 to 10 show a conventional structure for interconnecting wire harnesses at automotive door portions by using connectors, wherein in FIG. 8, a door b which is fitted to a vehicle body a contains a with hinges door side wire harness Wb disposed therein and extended therefrom to be coupled with a vehicle body side wire harness Wa by way of a connector at the connector fixing hole formed in a vehicle body panel P. FIG. 9 shows a female connector C1 attached to a vehicle body side wire harness Wa and a male connector C2 attached to a door side wire harness Wb, respectively made of synthetic resin, wherein the door side wire harness Wb further contains a rubber-made waterproof protecting grommet g in such a way that the male connector C2 is entirely covered thereby from its rear side. In this situation, the grommet g can be recognized from outside as shown in FIG. 8.
The female connector C1 attached to the vehicle body side wire harness Wa is formed with a plurality of resilient locking pieces e which are constructed by the slits d and each having a locking projection f at the free end thereof, and also formed with stoppers h respectively keeping a certain distance from the locking projections f.
As shown in FIG. 10, the female connector C1 attached to the vehicle body side wire harness Wa is fitted into a connector fixing hole P1 of the vehicle body panel P from the inner body side (the right side of FIG. 10), wherein when the female connector C1 is pushingly inserted into the connector fixing hole P1, the resilient locking pieces e are first inwardly deflected and gradually moved forward through the connector fixing hole P1, and thereafter, when the stoppers h are abutted to the inner surface of the vehicle body panel P, the resilient locking pieces e are resiliently returned to the original positions thereof, so that the locking projections f are latched at the outside surface of the panel P and the female connector C1 is thus fixed to the body panel P.
By this preliminary arrangement, the male connector C2 attached to the vehicle door side wire harness Wb is mated with the female connector C1 and locked by way of a known locking mechanism (not shown) which is normally situated at the middle portion of the connector, whereby the grommet g is firmly attached to the outside surface of the body panel P to function as its water-proof device.
However, with the construction above, if the female connector C1 is in such an unstable condition that a plurality of locking pieces e thereof are not perfectly fitted into the connector fixing hole P1 of the body panel P, it is likely to come off from the panel P when coupling it with the male connector C2, and in such an already advanced preparatory stage, it is quite troublesome to correctly fix the male connector C1 to the panel P from inner side of the vehicle body.
Further, with the construction above, in an opening or closing movement of the door, the male connector C2 is apt to be drawn by the door side wire harness Wb, so that the x and y portions of the grommet which are situated at the farthest ends from the locking mechanism (not shown) are likely to be detached from the body panel P thereby to form a space therebetween, and thus the efficiency as a waterproof sealing function thereof is lowered.